{"id":143480,"date":"2026-06-09T12:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/witness-in-shakahola-trial-detail-child-neglect-and-isolation-claims\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:03:15","slug":"witness-in-shakahola-trial-detail-child-neglect-and-isolation-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/witness-in-shakahola-trial-detail-child-neglect-and-isolation-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Witness in Shakahola Trial Detail Child Neglect and Isolation Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>NAIROBI, Kenya Jun 9 \u2013 The Shakahola massacre trial continued at the Tononoka Law Courts where the prosecution cross-examined defence witnesses in the case against Paul Mackenzie and 39 co-accused persons.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Seven individuals testified before Principal Magistrate Nelly Chepchirchir, with the court hearing disturbing accounts relating to alleged child neglect, isolation, and extremist teachings within the suspected commune.<\/p>\n<p>Among them, 44-year-old Agnes Jumba told the court she was introduced to a preacher through Paul Mackenzie\u2019s Times TV broadcast, later moving into his ministry network.<\/p>\n<p>She admitted relocating her child to Shakahola despite knowing there were no schools in the area, stating she \u201cfully knew there were no educational facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another accused, Lucas Owino, refused to swear on The Bible, identifying himself as a \u2018Mteule\u2019 (chosen one).<\/p>\n<p>He testified that residents were discouraged from interacting under strict rules allegedly imposed within the settlement.<\/p>\n<p>The court also heard testimony from Alice Kawira, who recounted the death of her child after returning from hospital care, and admitted withdrawing her children from school following the COVID-19 pandemic and not resuming education after relocation.<\/p>\n<p>Other witnesses described enforcement of internal discipline, including physical punishment of minors, and ideological justification for withdrawing children from formal education.<\/p>\n<p>The case continues as the prosecution team led by senior state counsel intensifies cross-examination of the accused persons.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NAIROBI, Kenya Jun 9 \u2013 The Shakahola massacre trial continued at the Tononoka Law Courts where the prosecution cross-examined defence witnesses in the case against Paul Mackenzie and 39 co-accused persons. Seven individuals testified before Principal Magistrate Nelly Chepchirchir, with the court hearing disturbing accounts relating to alleged child neglect, isolation, and extremist teachings within [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}